new tile for blog

composite from camera experimentation ... time for a new look blog?

Well, i'm back from my travels (for the moment...)

Hello! long time no blog entry...

My trip has been long and varied - nice to be away for 2 weeks... in Japan no-one ever gets more than a few days off, so 2 weeks is the sort of holiday you take in between jobs!

I started by going to Osaka by overnight ferry. After a 懐かしい couple of days in 京都, 鞍馬山 etc. with Mia, i took her to visit 平川節子先生 in 大阪, who served us お好み焼き. then I got the 夜行バス to 新潟県 and went for 6 days snowboarding in かぐら・苗場.

Charlie Brown the pension owner was interested to hear that the bearded foreign hitchhiker he'd picked up a couple of weeks ago was my brother! Staying in the same pension was a 65-year-old guy who was doing backcountry ski-touring, and training to do the Haute-route! Anyway, Kanbara-san invited me to go snow-trekking with him. He and Charlie showed me maps of the mountains, and where the risky areas to avoid were, etc., and although we didn't actually do any trekking together, we did meet up on the gondola, and a couple of times in mysterious hidden backcountry valleys.
Snow-wise, there was a little bit of fresh on the first day, but it was bright sunshine (and sunburn!-had to get factor 50 suncrm.) from the 2nd. So the snow got a bit sticky in parts, but the variety of terrain made up for it!
On a few days i hiked up from the top lift, from where can be discovered a whole load of valleys through which to descend to the pistes. Lots of people tend to gather on the peaks of the mountains, but when actually going down through the secret hidden valleys, there usually seems to be hardly anyone around! Magical! (one day the upper lifts were closed due to so i actually hiked for an hour and a half up the piste to above the top of the top lift - strenuous but most rewarding!) - the top lift was just under 2000m. high, so by the time you walk to the top you are feeling the altitude and can see for miles!
<-- This picture shows me at the top of the mountain (not the biggest!) with the friend or wife or daughter or someone of another retired ski-tourer i met up there - who was in Chamonix a few weeks ago! I reckon Kagura (including Naeba) beats ニセコ as an all-round ski-snowboard-piste-park-backcountry resort/ski area.

After 6 wonderful days, i went down to the coast in search of my host family - the 塚田 family in 直江津. I had sent them a letter in February, but it hadn't got through, so they had no idea i was coming... I arrived at their village at 8 pm, and couldn't find their house (a bridge has been widened, and there are a lot more houses than i remember) so i camped on a plot of grass between a road and a wind turbine by the sea, and in the morning, decided to search for the house for a bit before going to get on the train. Just as i was about to give up, i noticed a house set back from the road, and i could see through the window that the layout of the interior looked promising! I took my chances, and the door was answered by 隆平, the kid who was 8 when i stayed before, and is now about 12 or 13. He didn't really recognized me, but knew who i was when i said my name. He went and got his mum, who was surprised and pleased to see me - she thought i had already gone back to England. (she later said that her surprise was not so much the fact that i turned up, as the size of my backpack!) They invited me in for tea, and persuaded me to stay the night (I was not difficult to persuade, especially as the weather went from balmy and calm to snowy haily gale-force thunderstorms over the course of the afternoon!) The only things which have really changed about their place are Ryu's height, awareness and piano-playing ability (very inspiring!) and they have a dog (who we walked before the weather broke... haven't walked a dog for ages!)

Next day they were off to visit relations 神奈川県 (they invited me along, but i said i'd press on back to Kyushu)
so they put me on a train for the first day of 5 days unlimited local train travel.
I went to 金沢 where i visited 兼六園, one of Japan's three most famous landscaped gardens. Somewhat different to 屋久島, but interesting nonetheless. Living near Kanazawa is The, one of the other British CIRs who arrived at the same time as me. He was having a birthday party at his girlfriend's mum's house that evening, so i went along for a somewhat surreal evening ... i have never before petted and extremely small dog in a dress.... This dog (Candy) was one of 3 - only one of which was not wearing clothes - and the other clothed one (Chelsea) had disparately bulging eyes, an out-of control tongue (mostly stuck out at a silly angle) and slight paranoia (apparently Chelsea had "water-brain disease" where half of its brain is made of water...)
These dogs were highly expensive pedigrees (although the 3rd one, Ramune, was actually the offspring of Candy) and i can't help feeling that the deformed nature of Chelsea had something to do with the generations of inbreeding necessary to produce pedigrees...
The's girlfriend's mum cooked us all (5 - 7 peope) a huge pile of 天麩羅 and insisted we stayed the night (although The had work the next day, so we made our excuses).

Next day, i got back on the trains, and made slow progress to 鳥取 ... At one point i met a German guy - fresh off the Kansai plane - who was going to a Zen monastery to do a 6-month meditation retreat.
In the evening, strong winds delayed the trains (we stopped at 2 subsequent stations for half an hour or more - with announcements every 5 minutes that they would decide in 5 minutes whether the wind had calmed down enough...)

Found a cheap hotel and hot 温泉 in Tottori, and ran in the morning for the 6:30 train, as i had decided to try and get back to 吉富 that evening (thereby saving the extra 2 units on the railcard).

And i did get back, on Friday evening, ater a loooong tiring day with about 5 or 7 changes - almost too tired to appreciate the beautiful 山口 coastline we were passing.

The cherry blossoms are in full and spectacular bloom, so this weekend included 花見 in 犀川 with the takos and Mia.

As is normal for April, the office has changed a lot - my desk has been moved 2 spaces to the left making me much nearer to the 課長 and 係長 (i almost feel exposed!) and 2 new people have joined the office. Supervisor still the same.

The warm weather has started (again!) (although there is still a slight chill in the evenings).

"History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes." Voltaire

added to which, people only seem to remember the good times of life experience.

So we create the illusion thatwe have it much better off than the ancients. Maybe it was all fine and modern for them too.

"Everything's fine today, that is our illusion." Voltaire
also, people complain about daily life. So this creates the following illusion:

Life before i was born: Rubbish (getting gradually better over time)
Life since i was born: Great ("we used to have it so good")
Life now: Rubbish ("Life sucks")
(or
Life now:great!(everything's alright for ever) )
Life in the past (when talking to kids/successors): "you kids have it so much easier nowadays"
Life in the future:
either "Things can only get better" / "It's getting better all the time"
or "It's all downhill from here" (which could mean better or worse)
or "This country's going straight to hell!"
therefore summed up as Uncertain.

(why do i keep getting images of Yarpole church?)

does anyone actually know anything at all?
(if you do, then please let me know!)

Boxes Rant

(instigated by hearing that Mia was not allowed to go and teach outside instead of in the classroom)

What is it about humanity that we are so intent on shutting ourselves up in little boxes?! Physically , psychologically, socially, we build these walls, and lock ourselves away, then wondr what we're running away from!
We don't realise we're running from the sun! From the power and light that will give us the energy to "cope with life".

What does that mean, anyway? "Cope With Life?"
Why do we have to make Life out to be something that we need to "cope" with?
Life is a Joy; with challenges, perhaps, but to say it is necessary to "cope" with life gives "life" a heavy dark lustre which it does not need.

as i write, the windows are covered by blinds (have you noticed i am usually sitting in the office as i write this blog?) to prevent the sunlight from coming in (are they called blinds 'cos that's what they make you?) and we are subjected to the ghastly fluorescence that pervades offices (and kitchens? why kitchens?) the world over.

When oh when will people realize that solar power is Free, and doesn't even need to be converted into electricity to be used?

If anyone reading this has ever built or considered building a building that makes all possible use of natural light, then please let me know!

blue sky blue

It is a truly beautiful day.

i find this fruastrating, because i am "stuck" in the office supposedly writing my monthly magazine article (on art) when i could be outside absorbing it...
(Why is it always when i'm frustratedly sitting in the office that i find myself writing my blog? It's supposed to be a blog of stuff i do, not a blog of stuff i would like to be doing but can't)
A quote by Kahlil Gibran floated through my Gmail account this morning - "Life without liberty is like a body without spirit." So what is Liberty? Is it the same as freedom? Does the fact that i am sitting in an office when i'd rather be outside mean that i have neither? Or am i making this compromise so that i have the means to experience freedom and liberty in different forms?


In my dream-sky this morning, there were no clouds.

When, having woken up, i eventually managed to drag myself from under the warm covers, and up the hill, i realized that this is the truth for the "real" sky as well.

三寒四温, literally "3 cold 4 warm" is a way of describing the weather cycles as Japan approaches spring. 3 days of cold, 4 days of warm.

Reading "Chaos"... very amazing...

(this entry rushed and incomplete 'cos the 12:00 chimes have gone and i gotta go+ see if Steve's back from Nagano)

a final word - Don't Drink Coffee!
well, you can if you want but i don't reccommend it.
It doesn'T work for me, anyway.

Art College Application

At last! I have finished and sent off my Art College Application!
well, that's a relief....

Just in case anyone's interested, here's my personal statement: (with added notes and links)

From cardboard models to candle making, artistic projects and ideas fascinated me from an early age.

The Art Department at Monmouth School provided me with a variety of media and held workshops with artists including Jenny Whiskard, Jonty Henshall, and Anthony Frost. My developing interest in pursuits such as abstract expressionism, photography and driftwood sculpture culminated in my A-level projects:

- An “investigation of self” project consisted of a driftwood cabinet containing artefacts, photos and sculptures from throughout my life; it also included a video portrait of my life;
- An “Abstract Colours” project based on oil and acrylic paintings of Monmouth School buildings was backed up by a related study and video about the life and work of Anthony Frost;
- A third project was the result of an extracurricular life-drawing class;
- For the exam theme “Industrial Action” I constructed a semi-abstract oil painting based on photos of construction machinery.

During my gap year I studied Japanese in Japan and travelled in Europe. Throughout this and my university career I bound my own travel diaries and dream diaries and continued my life video portrait.

While living in Tokyo during my second year of university, I developed an interest in Kabuki theatre. I also got a brief glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes of the performing arts through a part-time job with the Bologna Opera on tour in Japan.
In Tokyo, my drawing style was influenced by visits to art exhibitions including Kandinsky and Sesshu. Art galleries I have enjoyed in the UK include the Tate Modern and Tate St. Ives; I also love the concept of the gallery as a living art space as envisioned by the Baltic in Gateshead.

The majority of my recent artwork consists of abstract drawings made with pencils and oil pastels, photography and digital imaging. I am interested in creating depth within drawings and have experimented with bringing this into 3 dimensions with freezer-based ice sculpture and some ceramics. I am also interested in the construction of large interactive spaces – an idea I have yet to develop.

I am currently working at the Board of Education in a small town in Japan as a CIR on the JET programme. My job consists mostly of teaching English throughout the community, but also incorporates international relationships through music in a band with other CIRs who come from several different countries.
A lot of my work is with the town Kids’ Club. I have used this as a basis for teaching juggling, musical improvisation, inline skating and paper aeroplane making. My next of these projects is an Anthony Frost style abstract collage workshop.
Due to finishing my contract in Japan, I won’t be available for interview until August – I hope this is not too inconvenient.

HCAD is the nearest Art College to my home near Leominster, but this is not the only reason for choosing to study there. The small college environment attracts me, as does the variety of disciplines on offer, including book arts.
I feel that the chance of working alongside a group of artists at College would give me the opportunity to develop my art and help link my current practices with my long-term goals.
My long-term goals include the incorporation of art and artworks at various levels of society, and I am attracted to the practice of art within local communities and the revival of rural craftsmanship.

My other interests range from outdoor pursuits such as hiking, paragliding and snowboarding to inner pursuits including yoga, meditation and reading. I love many forms of music and play the clarinet, saxophone, piano, accordion, as well as pretty much anything else I can get my hands on. When in the UK I also ring church bells.

新年 (New Year)

The night of the New Year was something of a surreal experience for me. I sat around at home wondering whether to go out or go to bed. Eventually, I decided to go and do the shrine thing. This led to the question of which shrine to go to. As I was preparing to go out, I discovered that the only money I had left was 30 yen: 5 5-yen coins and 5 1-yen coins. So I decided to go to 5 shrines, and spend 6円 at each (5 to say goodbye to 2005 and 6 to welcome 2006.) Made sense to me, anyway. As I cycled through the night and got closer to the main shrine the amount of traffic – cars, bicycles and pedesrtrians – gradually increased. I parked my bike and walked through the torii and along the avenue to the main shrine buildings, where I arrived at about 5 to 12. I joined a queue of people, which extended between a couple of bonfires in the courtyard to the main shrine building. 12:00 came and went, four dancers and three musicians started performing 神楽 in the 神楽台 and the queue I was in gradually started to move. One or two people recognized me and said おめでとうございます. When I reached the shrine building, I did the usual – i.e. threw my coins (6円) into the money box, banged the gong with the rope, clapped my hands and bowed. Then I went to watch the 神楽。Also watching was 谷本さん, her son and daughter and another couple of members of the kids club Junior Leaders, with whom I exchanged the customary greeting. I stayed and watched 神楽 with them for a while (one of the dancers was Daiki, another of the JuniorLeaders) and warmed myself on the fire. Various other people came and went, including some of the kids I teach (and their parents – it was a valuable occasion for learning who is in who’s family!) and ケンちゃん. The first four kagura dancers finished their bit, and a single older guy came on to replace them. There was some talk in the audience of an 鬼 appearing soon, so this looked to become a very typical kagura performance – most kagura seems to consist of a brave guy who beats a demon. This was indeed the case, although this demon was more méchant than any I'd seen before. His first victim was a young boy from the audience, who he took up onto the stage. The kid was old enough to realize what was going on, i.e. that this was kagura and he was expected to participate, but probably still young enough to believe that this was a real demon. This was all very well, and the kid participated (the demon got him to bow down in the direction of the good brave old guy) without too much reluctance. But the 鬼’s next action shocked/appalled me. The victim was a 2-year-old girl who was in the arms of her mother. The “demon” tore her away, and carried her screaming up onto the stage. I have just finished reading a book which explains how child abuse and early childhood experiences (especially traumatic ones) are the root of most procrastination and difficulty throughout life, so have been somewhat sensitive to child-rearing methods while reading it. Although the child was eventually returned to her mother, goodness knows what trauma she has undergone and the difficulty that will cause her in later life. Ok, so it’s all just fun and games, drama, a bit of a laugh, but how do you explain that to a 2-year-old, who is surely convinced that this terrifying monster is out to rid her of all security?

After the demon had returned the kid, terrorized a middle aged woman and eventually left the stage and I was convinced it wasn’t about to come back and traumatize any more 2-year-olds, I made my excuses and went off to tour the other shrines. On my way out around the back of the shrine, I again crossed paths with three of the 11-year-olds I teach, and they further abbreviated 開けましておめでとうございます to 開けおめ。My next stop was the bright red 稲荷神社 down by the harbour. It was dark and there was no gong, but I deposited my 6円 and continued. Cycled around the Mitsubishi Pharmaceuticals factory, up to the main road, along a couple of (dark) roads whose existence I'd never before had any inkling of, and around to an enshrined and wooded hillock I had walked over when I walked to Buzen. The approach to the shrine was dark, but there were lights up at the buildings. No people around. It was not clear which of the buildings was the main shrine, and there was neither gong nor money box. So I selected a bulding which seemed to be a 神楽台; in many shrines this is directly in front of the main shrine. So I threw 6円 over towards the grille at the back of the stage and walked over to the edge of the park to look at the night. I found my way back down through the dark woods to my bike, and headed over to a theretofore unbeknownst shrine I had noticed over the other side of a field from the dark lanes I had travelled. This was a more typical shrine with a couple of 鳥居 and a main shrine behind a 神楽台。 The money box gladly accepted my offering and I continued towards the shrine on the hill near my appartment. This is another 稲荷神社, complete with 3 or more 鳥居 and a few foxes (and a thousand or so paper cranes) but no gong and no money-box. So 6円 are currently sitting somewhere inside the shrine.
After another night view of Yoshitomi and Nakatsu, I returned to my appartment at about 2 am, phoned home, and got mutually confused with my dad as to when I had last phoned. I got to bed at around 3, and it was an hour later that the most surreal experience of the night occurred. The phone rang, and I answered it before I was fully awake. It was Mia in Oregon, who had mis-calculated the time difference. So we talked for a bit and then I went back to sleep. Or maybe it was a dream. I guess the first bit definitely wasn’t a dream though, ‘cos I definitely have no money in my wallet – not even 30円。

One of the 課長 from the 役場 just came into the office and talked at length with me and my supervisor about 国際交流
Apart from putting me in a socially awkward position by taking the mickey out of やこちゃん, he tried to convince me that the Japanese intestine is longer than the 外人 one, which is why the traditional Japanese diet is more vegetarian (and proposed it as a theory why i have become vegetarian - due to eating lots of Japanese food, which has obviously made my intestine longer). This was based on a theory (which i believe) that as human intestines are comparitively long for the animal kingdom, we are naturally more suited to a vegetarian diet.
Anyway, thanks to mutant frog for starting to clear up some of the 日本人論 issues and allowing me to leave the computer and live a bit more of my wintry existence!
(why don't we hibernate, by the way?)

Incidentally, if that guy hadn't come into the office, i might have actually got some work done...

winter

I step out of my apartment and sniff the air. Winter has arrived. The feeling of the day is grey in that way which says “I’m not going to get warm until March!”
I walk across the carpark to a soundtrack of chirping birds. Open the door. Step into the warm office. I say “Good Morning” instead of おはようございます because last month the town mayor asked that I speak English from now on instead of Japanese. This has created interesting currents of communication in the office.
I slip my timecard into the time machine, which reads 9:16 .. I am technically one minute late. Saying good morning to 中家さん, I sit down at my desk, on which today’s edition of The Japan Times is lying as usual. The headline reads, “Slowing Atlantic Current Threatens Europe”. I immediately think I’ll have none of this scaremongering!” The article describes the movements of the Gulf Stream, but also includes phrases like “European continent could be plunged into bitter winter” and mentions "the 2004 Hollywood movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’". Although the article says that the effects would not be as sudden as those in the movie, the mere mention of this film is surely likely to forge a link with any fear lingering in the mind of the reader. Ironically, at the very top of the page, above the words “The Japan Times” is written, “ALL THE NEWS WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR”. If this is the newspaper’s aim, then how can its editors justify the placement of an intentionally fear-instilling article mere centimeters below it? OK, maybe we have the right to know what scientific reports have been published, but to have a headline like that (which is likely to make people who read it, especially Europeans, feel somewhat threatened) at the top of the front page is blatant scaremongering.

Mikan!

I have just been up at a fruit farm in the hills picking oranges with the yochien kids. I’ve never done orange picking before – I picked over 150 oranges! The weather was superb, and from the orange farm we could see all the way back down to 吉富, and even over the sea as far as 姫島, and 山口県. Also, the altitude gave us an interesting different view of 八面山.
I would be extremely happy if I had an orange tree. Or lived near a public one. Most of the trees we were picking from today had at least 100 oranges on – and they’d already been picked from. So a single largish orange tree would probably supply most of my personal yearly orange supply. Cool!
Incidentally, I wonder why we don’t have public fruit trees. Trees that aren’t owned by anyone, but you can just take whatever fruit you want as and when it appears. It would be like a vending machine, perhaps with a box for donations towards upkeep. There could be whole orchards of such trees, to provide a selection of fruits all year round!

expression repression

5pmish 19/11/05 Have just been banned from playing my recorder on a train. (I started whistling straight after, as the tunes coming into my mind had to be expressed, but...) This is abominable! Music is the language of the soul! How can the soul be limited by a train conductor?! What kind of repressed country is this?! Presumably if I were to ask why, the answer would be 「他のお客様に迷惑なのです。」 At which I would ask the other passengers, if it was, indeed, 迷惑. And if any of them actually admitted to being annoyed by my recorder playing, I would feel sad for a country where people are repressed to the extent that they can’t even ask someone nicely if they’ll play a little quieter or in a different carriage (or not at all). Ideally, everyone else in the carriage would join in, and we could have a multiple soulful expression session!
Am I being culturally intolerant? Or are they being culturally intolerant?

(ok, so I’m probably going thru a slight “annoyed with Japan” phase. Which doesn’t mean I’m not enjoying myself.)

tree update

The leaves on the tree outside the toilet are golden orangey yellow in the sun...

... and rustic deep red in the shade.

the sky is blue
the sun is shining
(all this may seem like a cliché, but it's actually true so why not write it?)
the clouds are big and impressive (on the rare occasions i get to see them reflected in the windows of another part of the building)

and in spite of having 101 things to remember and 51 things to do and at least 21 distractions, (and in spite of wanting to go for a walk instead of sitting here glued to this screen) i am content and peaceful.

there is an origami rendition of santa claus staring down at me from the door of a metal cupboard.
kkinda scary
also, there is a large family of green magnets on the door next to him (13 green, 3 blue ones).

why aren't there forests everywhere?
and why don't kids like raisins?
(i've had to compromise on the christmas cake for the kids' Christmas party because apparently kids don't like raisins so we're doing chocolate cake instead... / but this doesn't mean i can't make my own christmas cake! and it doesn't stop me from making brownies tonight!)

i am sort of sleepy, but also feeling like i'm in several different moods at once. which is kind of nice......
i wanna paint and dance and fly and float around ....

people keep asking me to do stuff (or more accurately reminding me that there is stuff i have to do for them)

and i have just been handed a fish-paste sausage type thing to eat with noodles.

this morning I did a spontaneous chalkboard maze game at the yochien. It turned out to be a 4-dimensional maze (technically 3 dimensions, 'cos there was no in or out) due to walls appearing and disappearing randomly to give the blue team a chance to catch up with the pink team and the green team. As for the yellow team, they went down a cul-de sac all the way to the end, before going back and being rescued by the other teams, who by that time had gorged themselves silly on ice cream.
It worked well and most of the kids got the hang of the direction thing.

At the end of the lesson, i started removing the magnets from the board, and casually remarked "aisu curiimu tabeyouya" - and was suddenly overwhelmed by an unexpected wave of kids who came to wipe the chalk off the board. This job can be awesome!

at the weekend i ... (Sunday)

went paragliding!
At 塚原!
Actually it was parawaiting, 'cos the wind was in the wrong direction for that particular hill.
(in Wales, we'd just go to another hill, but we didn't do that here...)
so i climbed a tree, slept outside on someone else's rollmat (the people 糸長さん had arranged a lift for me with), and managed to get a bit of ground handling in before going back to 糸長さん's place for spaghetti!

i was going to cook brownies in the evening, but ended up drawing instead.

Creativity is bursting thru me muchly.
Which is a good thing! or so i believe.

and at some point i finished reading the Silmarillion.

at the weekend i ... (Saturday)

had a lie-in.

I was then late for kids club (due to having thought it was at 1:30 instead of 1:00) which consisted of juggling and storytelling - the kids tried to make the stories as scary as possible (and there were 2 kids who didn't say a word the whole time - how do you get kids to be spontaneous? Especially when they're already a good few years into the Japanese schooling system? those two are, however, the best jugglers in the group, so silence does have its perks...)

After that a bunch of other kids who i teach came to my door wanting to play, and i was just going out rollerblading. So they came into my (totally untidy) appartment, said it was dirty and smelled (of pizza - not sure why - maybe the olives and italian herbs?) and i fed them peanuts nd chewing gum to encourage them to leave, and we all went cycling (me rollerblading) along the riverbank. And they said where are you going? and i said "here! the riverbank! to rollerblade!"
I sat and watched the sunset (while they unsuccessfully tried to persuade me to continue twice the distance to a shopping centre) before rolling back.
And they came with me to the supermarket when i went shopping (still on rollerblades) and managed to persuade me to buy them drinks. I was looking for brownie ingredients (decent chocolate for cooking is rare and expensive here) and the kids snuck some sweets into my shopping basket when i wasn't looking... (i kinda thought they would do that) ... the joys of life, eh?
In the evening, i phoned 糸長さん which led on to the events of Sunday.

oxtropulation

i just thought of a new word which doesn't/shouldn't exist:
oxtropulation

anyone got any idea what it means (or doesn't mean?)

made marks

Nothing particularly special, this is an example of the sort of stuff i draw during meetings.


Please let me know if you appreciate it, hate it, copy it, use it, etc.

Post- Mountain Hermitage Life

I did title this entry:
Office life (What a boring title)

but thought it somewhat boring so changed it.

in short,

I really don't like being stuck in an office.
(and i have been living up in the mountains for 2 days, although i meant it to be 3)

in long,

Who first had the ridiculous idea that an office is conducive to effective work?
And who had the equally ridiculous idea that we should stay in the office (? to maximize work time?) ...
i could rant about this all day, which would even further seriously diminish my effective wrk time.

apart from school visits, my only respite from the office environment is the odd trip to the loo. I value these trips immensely. While standing there peeing, i can see over the top of the cubicle and out the window, to the trees. And i can learn a lot from what i see. If the tree is moving, it is windy. If the tree is still, it is not. (it's fun when there's a typhoon blowing, but the window is usually closed at such times). Between the leaves/branches, i can see if the sky is blue or not. (it is today!) And one of the most amazing things about seeing the same tree day in day out is watching the seasons change! I remember (or at least imagine i can remember) back in the winter when there were no leaves. And I definitely remember one day when i suddenly thought "hey! the tree is bushy with many leaves! It is truly summer!"
Today, the tree's leaves are still fairly plentiful, which allows only some of the bright blue sky to show through. Some of the leaves are smaller, curling up, and gradually turning brown. hey are moving a fair amount - but the branches are still. So the next typhoon is not here yet.

Back in the office: the energy down here is flat, dull and grey (still no plants except a couple of bushes outside the window, partially visible thru the half-closed blind) whereas up in the mountains, the energy is all pointy and green and interesting! even when it's misty and you can't see anything, you can shout and it will echo off the mountains. Nothing echoes through the office fog except the non-ceasing hum of the computers/photocopier etc. I thought of the mountain echoes this morning when teaching 9 and 10 year-olds the Mulberry Bush song. I was shouting out the actions "This is the way we brush our teeth!" etc, and i suddenly realized it was echoing off the wall of the room. It crossed my mind how different the experience would be (and how much more lively and energized the kids would be) if we were up in the mountains doing the same activity.

I found, in the mountains, what may be the ultimate echo place.

The first echo comes from a little rocky shoulder to my left. Then from another similar shoulder just below it and a bit further away. Then, after a second and a half (!!!) the echo pans around from slightly left of the centre to the far right, as the other side of the valley gets further away and slopes down towards the real world. (i may even have heard a subsequent echo from somewhere even further!) Here's the diagram i drew in my diary, with a Google Earth screenshot below:

The place i was a hermit in is the red-roofed mountain refuge hut slightly to the right of the middle of the bottom of this picture, which i took last time from the summit of Kujuu:

The hut is at a confluence of several hiking paths and makes a good place for a picnic stop, so on Monday, i had several people unbeknowingly wandering through my bedroom...

Busted!

i was just asked for the first time ever what i was doing while sitting at the computer. I was actually looking at this blog, albeit a text part of it. But the question addressed to me turned out to be rhetorical, as the lady who asked looked at the screen, noticed it smothered in English, and giggled, "I wouldn't have a clue even if i looked!"
i do have things to do,and am doing them ... gradually ... i jsut happen to be doing a lot of other things as well (e.g. procrastinating, websurfing, etc...)

If anyone is actually reading this, please let me know! I will (i promise) fill in (some of)the gaps ... eventually...

taifuu (lack thereof)

Well, the 台風 seems to have blown away.
So it's back to normal (whatever normal means)

台風 part 2

Well, typhoon #14 blew all night, getting stronger and stronger, and when i awoke in the morning, it was wild and wildening outside, and we still hadn't been reached by the main part of the storm (big red blob on TV map).

As well as being very big, this typhoon is very slow-moving. Which means that the strong winds and heavy rain hang around for a while! I wonder if everyhting will be cancelled tomorrow as well...

The office is abuzz with people taking actions of various sorts, occasionally rushing outside to secure a bit of something that has blown loose, and slightly fretting about the comfort of the refugees, who are steadily trickling in. Tempers fray from time to time, amid discussions of such things as the relevance (or otherwise) of who wants what kind of packed lunch, etc.

The small television in the wall behind me is blaring a constant running report of the current state of various parts of Kyushu and Shikoku. i am sure that the constant noise generated by this is not helping to de-stress the environment at all.
The news report includes information about who has been injured by the typhoon, but i wonder how different the figures would be if there was such a report on injuries sustained every day regardless of the weather.

The big red blob on the TV map is now upon us - covering the whole of Kyushu!
If there were not so many buildings, trees and electricity wires around, it would be fun to go outside and physically experience the awesome power of nature.
But i am in the office, and here i must stay until i brave the journey across the carpark to go home for lunch.